An American company selling pretzel snacks to the Bavarians? Let’s look at these Pretzel Crisps!

When I saw these Pretzel Crisps in a local German supermarket I was a bit confused… Where to begin?

• These are American. I recognised the design of the packet from pictures I’ve seen on Junk Food Guy and Impulsive Buy only… there’s a difference. In America these carry “Snack Factory” branding. Here in Germany they’re marketed as Snyder’s of Hanover. I’ve seen their flavoured pretzel pieces for sale in quite a few places, so that branding change make some sense. But then… why wouldn’t these also be marketed as Snyder’s in America? 
• The language of the packet is American English. Flip it over and the ingredients list comes in multiple languages: English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian. They’re “Made In The USA”.
• Look further down and you get: “Cracker and bag designs © 2004-2014. All rights reserved. Snack Factory®, Pretzel Crisps®, Rethink Your Pretzel!® and cracker designs are trademarks of Princeton Vanguard LLC.” – Did someone forget to tell them we’re in 2017? And that they haven’t branded these as Snack Factory, but Snyders?

Let’s eat.

On opening the packet there’s a somewhat disturbing aroma that my brain wants to categorise as ‘varnish fumes’. It smells seedy and a little bit odd. Tipping them out onto the table, I didn’t expect them to look so unnatural! They actually look like they’ve been varnished – it’s not just the way I’ve taken this photo. They’re definitely an orangey-brown-varnish colour.

Eating them? They’re very very thin and crisp. Like slices of a crisply baked flatbread. I don’t think they taste like a lye based breze and I don’t see much in common with a pretzel either. Other than the shape… Unless you happen to lay them out like I did and think they sorta resemble Space Invaders. Do you see the skull faces in there too?

There’s a light saltyness to these, along with a good dose of sesame and poppy seed. It’s a nice flavour mixture but the thing you’re gonna notice right away is the sweetness. It’s not even really a background flavour – they’re just sweet. Cane sugar hits the ingredients list at number 2, just behind wheat flour. Sucrose turns up at number 5 too. This must be where the coating is getting its sheen from. Sweet sesame is the last, lingering flavour on my tongue.

It’s not a bad snack but it’s not a pretzel flavour either, certainly not by Bavarian standards. They’re also a little too sweet, which isn’t what I personally want from a savoury snack. As they’ve been available in America for a while though, they clearly have their fans and they might be right up your street if you like things sweet and lightly savoury.

These crisps are a bit addictive though… I keep putting my hand in the bag and munching as I’m writing this and I’m not even sure that I like them. But I’m eating them… Would I buy them again? No. Will I finish this bag off in the next couple of minutes? Yes. Make of that what you will.